Starting
tonight,
Goldin
will
be
auctioning
off
one
of
the
rarest
Nintendo
Entertainment
System
cartridges
of
all
time.
Nintendo
originally
created
only
26
of
these
gold
cartridges
as
prizes
for
Nintendo
Power
magazine
readers
in
1990.
They’re
so
hard
to
come
by
that
one
sold
on
eBay
for
$100,088
a
decade
ago.
Hundreds
of
cartridges
were
created
for
the
1990
Nintendo
World
Championships,
an
event
that
toured
the
United
States
trying
to
find
the
country’s
best
gamers.
Players
competed
for
high
scores
in
timed
versions
of
Super
Mario
Bros.,
Tetris,
and
Rad
Racer,
which
were
all
bundled
onto
special
cartridges
featuring
physical
switches,
allowing
the
games’
time
limits
to
be
modified.
Most
of
these
cartridges
featured
standard
gray
NES
shells,
but
26
of
them
were
upgraded
with
a
shiny
gold
housing
and
given
away
to
winners
of
Nintendo
Power
magazine’s
“Player’s
Poll
Contest”
that
same
year.
According
to
Goldin,
this
particular
gold
cartridge
was
the
one
awarded
to
Patrick
King
of
Cheyenne,
Wyoming,
whose
name
appeared
in
volume
18
of
Nintendo
Power,
along
with
the
other
Player’s
Poll
Contest
winners.
These
games
were
never
sold
in
packaging,
which
partly
explains
why
this
particular
cartridge,
which
appears
worn
and
is
missing
its
label,
was
given
just
a
4.0
grade
by
CGC
Grading.
(A
grading
of
10
would
indicate
mint
condition.)
Despite
the
cartridge’s
rough
shape,
bidding
tonight
will
start
at
$10,000.
According
to
the
FAQ
page
on
the
auction
house’s
website,
at
that
level,
potential
buyers
will
be
prescreened
to
ensure
they
can
pay
up.
That
will
help
protect
the
cartridge’s
unknown
seller,
but
what
about
buyers?
Faking
a
rare
cartridge
like
this
and
fooling
CGC
Grading
would
be
a
huge
but
profitable
undertaking
given
the
current
demand
for
rare
retro
games
and
hardware.
The
easiest
way
to
confirm
that
this
one
is
legit
is
to
win
the
auction
and
plug
the
cartridge
into
an
actual
NES,
but
that
could
end
up
being
a
budget-busting
approach
best
left
to
deep-pocketed
collectors.
(Originally posted by Andrew Liszewski)
Comments